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Phillies Relying heavily on their only Top 100 prospects to Make majors in 2020

Phillies Relying heavily on their only Top 100 prospects to Make majors in 2020

01-24-2020, 09:44 AM

The Phillies are relying heavily on their two top-rated prospects #27 rated RHP - Spencer Howard and #28 rated 3B - Alec Bohm to start the season with the AAA/International League/Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, to make solid contributions to the Phillies major league club sometime during the 2020 season. This comes directly after after their #1 pick of a few years ago, Adam Haseley made a nice contribution to the major league team at the age of 23, filling in nicley in the outfield after Andrew McCutcheon went down with an injury and Odubel Herrera was suspended by the team in June. Haseley went to Spring training only trying to make the Phillies AA/Eastern League/Reading, PA starting outfield, but he wound up contributing so much more and doing a good job at the major league level for about the last 3/5 of the season, showing some power ,hitting about .260, and fielding his position well in Center Field and occasionally in the other outfield position. Haseley wound up playing in 67 MLB games in 2019 , starting in 59 of them and hitting .266 with 5 home runs - outperforming all expectations.
Phillies management held some deep discussions about whether to bring him up last September.
Spencer Howard had been considered for a September call-up and was the topic of many Phillies management discussions, but then ultimately the team's braintrust decided against Howard in making the move to the major leagues in 2019. Indeed, Howard may only be spending about one month in the minors before being called up to the big club approximately May 1st. Certainly the Phillies' management doesn't want Howard to be on their Opening Day Roster, so they can keep control of him for one more year before Howard earns Free Agency. The Phillies will be able to control Howard through 2026 as long as he isn't on the roster for the first 15 days of the season.

In Bohm's case, Phillies management feels that he will probably need about 2/3 of the season in the minors and a good time for his MLB debut nay be in early August, after the July 31 Trade Deadline, which may shakeup the roster.

Not only are Howard and Bohm rated next to each other at #27 & #28 among major league prospects of all minor league teams, but the similarities don't end there since the two players were born less than one week apart. Both of them will have their 24th birthdays this summer, with Spencer Howard having his 24th birthday on July 28 and Alec Bohm celebrating his 24th birthday six days later on August 3.